Kane, sorry it took me this long to chime in here. I have used HST in the past for mass and I grew decently, although if I ever do it again i will cut back on bi/tri work. My legs/chest/back seemed to grow but my arms just didnt. Ever since I hit 17" it seems like they just stopped growing. I will admit I started really focusing on strength and not mass at that point, but they should have gained something ... overtraining is a bitch hahaha.

If you have a look at my journal, I have been using a custom routine for strength in certain areas, and a hypertrophy in others. Just cold measured my arms and they are 18.5" (although thats not all that acurate, I did it myself). I have very little volume in my routine, mostly because of my injury, but it could be adapted for anything really.

hrdgain81's Sig:

I don't do this for my family, my friends, women, accolades, pride, or ego. I do it for me and no one else, its just part of who I am.

Why am I fucking around with these cookie cutters and templates? Afterall I've got a solid experience base IMHO.

FEAR. That's the biggest reason people don't like to experiment, think on their feet, trust their knowledge of their own body, take reasearch from different places and figure out, slowly but surely, how it fits into their long term taining philosophy...people's failure to do this is driven by fear. Fear that they will lose a bunch of strength overnight if something doesn't "work" or they simply try things that are completely new to them. Won't happen. Let the fear go.

EricT's Sig:

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. or To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

^^Figured that was going to come up. I think that is a major component of it. Especially since when I joined this site I had been making my own routines and found out they were total shit.

At this point I know which exercises make me grow, I have the rep ranges in mind and all that. I think I might end up assemblying all of that together (within reason) and make a program. The thing is, I've been doing these 'programs' for years now and I'm going to have to break that habit and start exploring new shit. I may fail a few times but I think at this point the newbie gains are gone so I should be able to accurately evaluate their effectiveness.

Figured that was going to come up. I think that is a major component of it. Especially since when I joined this site I had been making my own routines and found out they were total shit.

My routines were shit to . That's the past. But I'm not suggesting you should just go off on your own completely breaking all new ground. You can kind of stick with the tried and true and try putting in your ideas, new things you pick up, figuing out how it fits in, etc...it's going to be trial and error and there is bound to be dissapointment. But the best routine in the end is going to be the one that is for you alone from the ground up.

Of course if you post your ideas and someone thinks it is a bad idea, or dangerous or what have you that is pertinent and you shouldn't be expected to just wing it all. But I would expect people to be albe to tell you WHY and not just tell you what has worked for them in the past and what has not. Because that is ultimately only relavant to them until they collect a whole lot more data.

How many times do people embark on these routines and have to ask hundreds of questions about whether this or that will work or how they can customize it?

One big problem I see is we have all these internet things going from "intermediate" to "advanced". The intermediate one tells you do not screw with it, etc. you don't know what you are doing. Then the advanced one either continues this trend of making it one size fits all...which not only goes against the idea of advanced it is really contrary to effectvie programming of any kind. OR, you go right from "not screwing with it" to being given a hundred choices becasue now you are strong enough to be 'advanced'. But when did you learn how to choose amongst all those options?

Logic:
-3 day routine, similar to DF 5x5 or ripps, etc. (Mon, Wed, Fri)
-Day 1 is hitting my pressing (ie. Triceps and shoulders) as well as working out my lower and upper back. By day 3 I should be recovered and at 100% for deads. MP is first because I want my shoulders to be fresh and sicne I'm soing Bench and flyes as a ss my bench won't be huge either.
-Day 2 is a higher volume upper day with heavy lower (5x5 squats)
-Day 3 is a must, I absolutely need those low rep high weight deads. Powercleans will follow and act as a sort of 'light squat' as well as shoulder development. Again Seated rows because those are very good for my back development. I'll have to watch my deads because that 3x1-3 is a deadly range as far as burning out is concerned so I'll manage that with small increments of loading (+5-10lbs per week). Usually heavy squatting is involved on my deadlift days but those squats are starting to impact my deadlifting, so I've axed them in favor of a heavier deadlift.

The plan as far as progression goes is to keep adding weight as per usual. As I progress I may need to make changes or substitutions. If I'm staring to feel burnt out or overtrained, then I'll deload and maybe switch to some new exercises. Most likely my decisions will be based on whats happening at that time and not what I have written down on paper.

OK, so this is what I've come up with and sort of why I've done what I've done. Again feedback is appreciated, I'd like to know if you think this will work and why/why not